Profaned
The landscape was shrouded in fog as though it was a protective blanket for the man made scars that blighted the forest. I believe that showing man’s destruction in a beautiful way has power for change and is a vessel for examining our values. The dichotomy I examined in this series lies in that the land photographed was preserved for forestry purposes but its beauty, for most people, is in its original undamaged form. I seek to start a dialogue about forest use along with sustainability and how these two ideas intersect or contradict each other.
Forestry is one of B.C.’s oldest industries and as a province we have made the assumption that there is an unlimited resource for it. But we have seen over the years that it is more finite than originally assumed and when these resources are depleted they are hard to replace. So how do we rectify the values between industry and the collective public consciousness of preservation? What seems to happen is that many of these clear-cut areas are away from the public’s gaze. Over the years I have journeyed the back roads and seen the land transformed from untouched to virtually decimated. I used to be able to travel for hours and see little of man’s imprint but now it is the forest between the logging that is the rarity. I seek to attempt to act as a witness to this change.